Air Serbia has suspended ticket sales on its flights between Belgrade and Tianjin past November 5. Passengers who booked tickets past this date have received notification of their flights being cancelled. The airline closed reservations past the first week of November this Thursday. EX-YU Aviation News reached out to Air Serbia about the matter on Friday morning but did not receive a response by the close of business. However, according to sources familiar with the matter, the airline opted for the move recently with staffing playing an important role in its decision. At this point, it is unclear if and when sales will be restored. The last flight out of Belgrade is currently scheduled for November 5, and the return service from Tianjin on November 6.
The development comes as Air Serbia continues to expand into China. Following the launch of its two weekly service to Guangzhou last month, the carrier is set to inaugurate two weekly operations to Shanghai on January 11. Air Serbia claimed as early as this month that it would continue to serve Tianjin, emphasising the route has been profitable since the day it launched in December 2022. Based on passenger figures over its first year of operations, the route did perform well with a high average cabin load factor. However, the airline only maintained a one weekly flight between the two cities, with exception to November and December of 2023 when the route was operated twice per week. Due to the one weekly frequency, Air Serbia’s aircraft stays in Tianjin over 24 hours upon arrival, in order to enable the same crew to operate the return service after rest. As a result, the entire rotation lasts three days.
Earlier this year, Air Serbia’s CEO, Jiri Marek, said the airline would not hesitate to discontinue any long-haul service that failed to perform. However, on the same occasion he noted that Tianjin had been a successful route. Air Serbia launched flights to Tianjin while coronavirus-related restrictions were in place in China. At the time, foreign carriers were restricted to where they could fly to in the country. As a result, the carrier was unable to introduce services to Beijing, which is located just over 100 kilometres from Tianjin. The two cities are linked by high-speed rail. After restrictions were lifted, the Serbian carrier said it would stick with Tianjin instead of transferring operations to Beijing as the route was performing well. Air Serbia faces no direct competition on the Tianjin service, although Hainan Airlines maintains two weekly rotations from nearby Beijing.
That doesn't sound very professional.
ReplyDeleteSeems like the people who were claiming that JU doesn't have enough pilots and flight attendants were right.
Flight attendants are not the issue, pilots are.
DeleteIf pilots are the real issue, how they managed to operate all long haul flights during summer, but fail to do that with less frequencies in winter, it doesn’t make any sense.
DeleteAre there enough A330 typerated flight attendants?
Delete@9.08 because pilots leave
DeleteWhy would they leave JU and their life in Belgrade?
DeleteBecause there are many better places in Europe to live and work
DeleteNo need for A330 pilots in Ex Yu and anywhere in Eastern Europe
DeleteIs cheaper to fly crew or use high speed train from Shanghai to Tianjin, instead of letting the aircraft be on the ground for 24 hours.
Delete9:15 there are many better places in Europe to live and work, but compare the cost of relocating a family of 3-4 and cost of living at places like ZRH or GVA with Belgrade.
Delete@10:04
DeleteExactly BUT if I was making a pilot's salary I would much rather live in Belgrade than Switzerland where everything is closed after 9 pm.
Dont forget that this summer JU had two A330s, now they have three and soon four of them.
DeletePupin is about to be serviced and get a cabin update that will take a lot of time.
DeleteAnd anyway the airline knew that it will need more flight crews, why didn't they made sure they were ready for the launghaul expansion?
Because pilots are constantly leaving them. They don't have as many as they did a few weeks ago.
DeleteThere is shortage of pilots worldwide after COVID and boomers going to retirement.
DeleteYes there is a shortage but not in all places. In the US you have the exact opposite situation. United for example froze hiring for like a year.
DeleteIt was a huge mistake that they didn’t proceed with codeshare agreement with Hainan and launched PEK, just like they made a deal in CAN.
ReplyDeleteExacy!
DeleteThere is still no deal with China Southern. From what I understood only a MoU was signed, similar to what they signed with TK some time ago.
Delete^^^
DeleteThat is bad.
Well, an MoU is the first step. Now it's up to both carriers to make sure what is agreed in that document is turned into reality. Will happen? No one knows, only time will tell.
DeleteDamn, that was unexpected. Hope they don't fully cancel the route
ReplyDeleteIf there are staffing issues the launch of CAI that the president himself had announced will probably be delayed. 😢
ReplyDeleteNot just that, who knows what will happen to plans for Miami, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul 🤷♂️
DeleteShanghai is not a plan, but reality starting from next year.
DeleteBig loss of face if they're really discontinuing the route 10 days in advance.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteStill don' t understand why stop a route that performs well even once a week , unless they are lying about this success story !
ReplyDeleteGood question.
DeleteWell it obviously isn't performing very well.
DeleteDreaming of Tokyo, Seoul while can't maintain regular 1pw operation to TSN. Our friend from 400 km westbound office will burn them alive.
ReplyDeleteWell it’s expected that they’re struggling in the secondary city with minimum demand to Europe. The real question is why are they being blocked for PEK slots.
DeleteWith all western airlines leaving, PEK is half empty and it should be no longer a problem to get slots. Still PEK does not give subsidies. TSN gives.
DeleteAnd why are they cancelling flight only 10 days in advance
DeleteI wonder that too.
DeleteHope they are moving to PEK or PKX
DeleteI don't think they are moving to PEK or PKX.
DeleteThe Chinese want to serve Europe with their own airlines.
JU being sent to TSN in the first place was part of that long term strategy and they used a lame excuse about COVID to sent them there.
Literally nothing is stopping JU from moving to Beijing. Just like no one stopped them from launching CAN and PVG.
DeleteI think the airline was asked to leave the greater Peking market so that Hainan can face no competition.
ReplyDeleteThat would be ok only if JU wouldn’t face any competition in PVG as well.
DeleteDifferent market, different airline.
DeleteLong term retention of talent in almost any competitive industry has proven solutions. That's not rocket science.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the airline doesn't want to pay them more and offer better working conditions.
DeleteIt's the attitude: ако он неће, има ко хоће.
DeleteBetter pay is not the solution for long term retention. Bonuses and payouts after certain time periods are.
Delete@Nemjee
DeleteTaj rigidan stav lako im može doći glave. Ispada da nema dovoljno pilota ni za Embraere a pitanje je i za ATR kako stoje stvari.
S druge strane, možda je ovo pritisak kompanije da Neko Ko Sve Kontroliše da odobrenje da se plate ljudi koliko treba inače ode sve u tri lepe. Nadam se.
Плате су повећане у пар наврата и опет људи одлазе. Ок, разумем да неки као Арапи нуде нереалне плате али опет нас доводи на размишљање да можда није све само до пара? Можда постоје и други разлози зашто људи одлазе из ЈУ?
DeleteЕр Србија мора бити опрезна да јој младе посаде не остану само док не скупе довољно сати. Да би остали дугорочно морају постати добар послодавац.
Looks like future reservations didn’t look promising…
ReplyDeleteGotta find capacity for Seoul 😜
ReplyDeleteMaybe this move is done so that JU can start Tokyo and Seoul as much as per Vucic request!?
ReplyDeleteAre you serious?
DeleteStart of Tokyo or Seoul from BEG in a month is not like starting Cluj or Oradea as terciary locations.
I said it before and I will say it again. I think it's high time for the government to have a serious chat with Marek. There are simply too many things which are not working out since he took over.
ReplyDelete1. Employee dissatisfaction has reached an all time high, especially at HQ.
2. Pilots are leaving the airline which indicates that they are not happy with work conditions.
3. He pioneered the code-share agreement with Qatar Airways and nothing seems to have come out of it. QR did not upgrade capacity to BEG and they did not operate night flights in summer. In addition to that, Air Serbia did not launch BEG-DOH so as to profit from their alliance partner's massive network. It seems all of this was a pure PR stunt.
4. Turkey and Turkish Airlines. We all remember all sorts of plans Marek had with Turkish Airlines, from JV to an MRO. They allowed for TK to upgrade BEG from 14 to 21 weekly while Anadolou (which at that time was their business) launched ESB and ADB and later on SAW. Meanwhile, JU was butchered in ESB and ADB while their presence in IST keeps on becoming more and more modest. Who pioneered this? Marek did. By opening the doors for TK he put JU in a precarious position and they were eventually overrun by them. Like I already wrote once before, did he really think TK, a global airline, really wanted to share the market with JU? This is a global carrier which is fighting with Delta, American Airlines, Emirates, Qantas etc. Air Serbia was a tiny blip on their radar and they blew them off the moment they got additional access to BEG. So what gives? What commercial benefit did JU get from this deal? I was looking at some flights to Asia for January and I noticed that TK doesn't sell connections with JU. One has to wonder if we reached the lowest point in the JU-TK relationship? If JU had any balls they would have signed a codeshare agreement with Pegasus and would have lobbied for them to get extra flights to BEG. Why? Well to punish TK which tricked them...превели их жедне преко воде.
5. It was during his time as the CEO that both Air France and KLM terminated sales for O&D/local passengers flying between BEG, AMS and CDG. This winter KLM is upgrading BEG from a CityHopper to a Mainline destination. Next summer both flights will be operated by the B73W. On the other hand, shortly after terminating point to point sales with JU, Air France introduced ORY-BEG via their LCC brand Transavia.
To sum up their international cooperation we have a stagnant relationship with QR which doesn't seem to be going anywhere. TK is becoming increasingly hostile towards Air Serbia and they are constantly trying to push them out of the market. Then we finally have AF-KL which just like TK is trying to consolidate their position in BEG by having minimal reliance on JU.
So what was JU's strategy with all these carriers? Who will be left as their partner? B6? We can't even list ITA as the other one since Lufthansa is slowly taking over.
Now all eyes are on China Southern, let's see what becomes of this announced partnership.
6. Termination of TSN and the absolute collapse of ORD. We read on here that ORD will be reduced to just one weekly flight during certain periods of the winter season. Why is that? What went wrong with ORD? There should be enough O&D demand to fill at least two weekly flights and especially once you factor in transfers. They might not be as many as in summer but they are still there. Almost all airlines reduce their presence in Chicago in winter but I don't know any that operate TATL flights from there with 1 weekly flight. I think JFK was also slightly reduced this winter. They offer most regional connections with the ATR, their costs are low so they can afford to have aggressive pricing.
Delete7. We are still waiting on those loyalty programs both for companies and for regular travelers. It's been a while since anything was mentioned though we did hear that they planed on becoming members of TK's or AF's programs. Would they still want JU given the way they are treating them in BEG? Somehow I doubt it.
8. What happened to the announced IFE app they wanted to introduce onboard? They also mentioned new cabins a while ago but we didn't hear anything about it since. That said, we did hear about the state of the cabins and especially on Pupin. Some of the older A319s could also use a cabin refresh.
These are the main 8 points which stand out. Remains to be see what will happen in the coming months and what he as the CEO does to navigate these turbulent waters through which JU is sailing right now. We are still waiting to see what Wizz Air does next year. If they start growing then JU will have a hard time preserving their strong position at BEG. KLM, Lufthansa, Austrian Airilines, Aegean... have all announced increases for BEG. Some of them from this winter while some others for next summer. Starting from April, Lufthansa alone will operate six daily flights to BEG.
Is Air Serbia ready for all this? Winter season is here so I guess TSN termination is the exciting surprise Marek had for us.
Good points Nemjee!
DeleteNemjee. Fully agreed! Great questions.
DeleteI am first in line to defend and support JU. I always fly with them and am super proud of our national ariline. Wish them all the best.
Can not stand the hate from people and "analiticar".
But I must say that the way you, Nemjee wrote all of this and many others, you should consider having a site or portal of your own.
Just my thought.
Nemjee,
DeleteSad but truth. Funny thing is that market is alive and rising. While they are trying to play long haul games with pair of scrap planes and insufficient staf others will take their short haul passangers away.
JU management needs to understand something, there is a major shortage of high quality workforce in Serbia. Someone mentioned that retaining those will be key to their long-term success. I read a recent report that said that last year local companies increased their employees' salaries at the expensve of their profits. Maybe Air Serbia should do the same.
DeleteHyperproducing PR fluff pieces seems to be the only constant at JU.
I'll give you another brilliant example. A few weeks ago our company needed to move two boxes from a European destination to Serbia. So I contacted JU cargo department and a few hours later I got the following reply:
Ukljucujem kolege iz prodaje @Cargo AirSERBIA
No hello, no good morning, no thank you for showing interest in working with us... just this bland, impolite reply to my email. Later on another guy took over the convesation and he gave me the contact of their rep in that European country. I contacted them only to be informed that they do not handle cargo business but just sales of passenger tickets. Finally he was kind enough to give me the contact of a local company which, among other things, handles airline cargo. We arranged with them everything and goods were booked on Air Serbia to Belgrade.
How many companies would have dealt with this level of unprofessionalism? They would have put the two boxes on a truck and voila. End of the story. I insisted because I wanted them to fly with Air Serbia. 99.9% of people out there would not care.
These are the thngs JU needs to make sure are working flawlessly. They can't give out false information to their customers. Also, their employees can't be so rude and unprofessional when handling new customers.
I like Air Serbia and I have been defending them whenever possible. However, at this point they are not making it an easy job to do.
on points 3 & 4 - I'm not sure that QR & TK were Marek PR stunts, to me they more look like stunts from government officials where Air Serbia needed to follow...
Delete@11:12 that is my understanding also.
DeleteBut the airline management should have warned the government that TK will just take over the Serbia-Turkey market and explain to them why this is bad for JU and its finances.
Unfortunately both were JU stunts, I know that for a fact. Air Serbia did lobby the government to push TK to sign a code-share. However it seems that TK wanted extra access to the Serbian market in order for that to happen. TK got what they wanted, did JU?
DeleteAlso, let's not forget TK Cargo which also boosted BEG flights this year.
+1
Deletewow Nemjee you seem very frustrated with JU... bad take from you as always
DeleteTime to hear explanation directly from Air Serbia.
ReplyDeleteI never understood Tianjin post COVID. PEK or PKX are the Chinese prestige destinations.
ReplyDeleteChinese didn't alowed JU to fly to PEK. TSN was take it or leave it, I think.
DeleteRestriction was during covid.
DeleteCovid is gone and so is the restriction.
This is the "winter surprise" Marek was talking about 😀
ReplyDeleteThis is really not good. They need to stop being Wizzier than Wizz! We had enough!
ReplyDelete